This invention relates generally to connectors for establishing a connection between mother and daughter boards and more particularly to a connector assembly in which the metal contacts of the connector are soldered, or otherwise secured, in the mother board before the plastic connector housing is installed, thereby eliminating heat damage to the housing during the soldering operation.
In most prior art connectors designed to connect a daughter board to a mother board, the connector is completely assembled before it is mounted on the mother board. Subsequently, after mounting the connector on the mother board, the contacts are then soldered to the mother board, often resulting in deformation of the connector housing owing to the heat of soldering. To solve this problem connectors have been designed in which the contacts thereof are soldered to the mother board before the connector housing is installed. The connector housing is then installed by snapping it over the contacts already soldered in the mother board. It can be seen that in this type of connector the circuit board in which the contacts are secured is in fact a part of the connector. The total connector is a combination of the contacts, the circuit board in which the contacts are secured, and the connector housing. However, it is usually desirable to prestress the contacts in the connector so that when a mating male terminal is inserted in the connector it will be gripped in said connector by a firmer and more constant force.
Unfortunately it is difficult to obtain reliable long term prestressing of the contacts in those connectors in which the contacts are first secured in the mother board. The prestressed contacts frequently become relaxed after a time so that the electrical contact made with an inserted male terminal is derogated. A further disadvantage of prior art connectors in which the contacts are secured to a mother board first occurs when the number of contacts is large. In such structures the force required to snap the housing over the contacts can also be large, sometimes prohibitively so.